This happens to be one of the biggest complaints from people hurt in an auto accident. This also seems to be one of the deciding factors on whether or not the injured person ends up filing a lawsuit against the at-fault party.  So if you find yourself being at-fault for an accident, showing a little concern will go a long way.

Later that night or the following day, call your insurance company and set up a claim. After you have done that, look at the driver exchange form and call the person that you hit. Tell them you feel terrible for the accident and you hope they are okay. Let them know that you already set up a claim with your insurance company and give them the claim number. Tell them how sorry you are for any inconvenience you may have caused. Doing this will help your chances of not getting sued. Not doing this or being aggressive towards the injured person, regardless if you think you are at-fault or not, is a sure fire way of getting yourself served with a lawsuit.

Remember, you don’t have to admit fault, just show a little compassion and it will go along way in whether or not you end up getting served with a lawsuit.

After completing her therapy with a local chiropractor, we gathered all of the medical bills and records from the hospital and the chiropractor. The total amount of the medical bills was just over $3,800. I put all of the bills and records in chronological order and put a soft demand letter together and faxed it all over to the adjuster.

One week after faxing the demand package to the adjuster I called him up to confirm that he had received everything. He confirmed that he had in fact received my fax and that he would need some time to evaluate the information. I asked when I could expect to hear from him and he said a couple of weeks.

A few weeks passed and I had not heard from the adjuster so I decided that I would follow up with him again. He informed me that he still had not evaluated my wife’s claim. (Note: This is typical from adjusters as they have lots of claims and the reason why you must be diligent on your part to keep your claim on top of their list of claims to work on.) He did mention that he would try and get me an offer in the next couple of days. Sure enough, a few days pasted and he called with the first offer.

“Let me tell you, I think this is a fair offer”, he said. “I can offer your wife $2,000 plus all of her medical bills. If you want to settle, I can have the check ready today.”

I said, “Thanks for taking the time to evaluate our claim. Let me discuss it with my wife and I will get back to you.”

Of course the adjuster thinks $2,000 is fair. Most adjusters would think $10 was a fair offer if they could get someone to sign a release. What they fail to realize is the person that went through the pain and suffering of the injury probably does not think any amount is fair. I mentioned the offer to my wife and sure enough, she was insulted. I informed her that this is typical for adjusters to offer a low amount and to not worry about it too much. Knowing what I know about the value of claims, I knew he had more money.

After helping my wife understand how claims are evaluated, we decided that we would not accept an amount less than $4,000 plus all of the medical bills. I called the adjuster and left him a voice mail indicating that we would be declining his offer and that we would be making a counteroffer of $7,000 plus the medical bills.

He called later that night in shock. “You don’t really think her claim is worth $7,000 do you?”

I said, “Well, all I know is that we are not going to accept your offer of $2,000. Why don’t you try and increase your offer and we will re-evaluate our position.”

He proceed to increase to $2,800. I decreased to $6,000. He increased to $3,500 and I decreased to $5,200. He then increased to $3,800 and I decreased to $4,500.

“$3,800 is the best I can do,” he said.

“It’s too bad we are so close yet you won’t be getting a signed release from us. I really wish we could have gotten this file off your desk, but we are looking for a specific amount and really aren’t willing to settle for anything under that amount. If you can talk to your supervisor and let her know how close we are, maybe we can reach some middle ground.”

“Let me talk to my supervisor and get back with you,” he said.

A few minutes later he called back and informed me that his supervisor would be willing to offer $4,000 plus the medical bills if we would sign the release in the morning. I talked it over with my wife and we agreed to the settlement offer. The total money offer was $7,800 ($4,000 in general damages plus $3,800 in medical bills) which is 2.05 times the medical bills.

You will note that a lot happened from start to finish on my wife’s injury claim. You can find every tactic used in my negotiations with the adjuster and information on how to evaluate your personal injury claim using our Settlement Booklet™.

It just so happens that I found this article that sums up winter driving quite nicely. From the article:

If you do not have to drive in a snowstorm, then don’t. Stay home or take public transportation. Winter driving conditions can be very dangerous and unpredictable.

One other piece of advice, if you see an accident on a busy road or highway and conditions are still slippery, wait for the police or ambulance to give assistance. A woman was killed in Salt Lake City when she got out of her car to assist another injured person when a truck lost control on the slippery roads and slammed into her. Be careful out there.

In addition to facing a jury, you will have added costs and expenses just by filing a lawsuit. Most attorneys increase their fees if you want to file a lawsuit, so be sure to find out what the fine print says in your attorney retainer about filing a lawsuit. These added costs come directly out of your settlement and often times are not reimbursable. This can be a huge gamble for you especially if you have a borderline offer already on the table.

Once you file a lawsuit, all offers are taken off the table and the end result can be better or it can be worse. If you end up with a worse offer than what was originally presented to you from the insurance company prior to the jury verdict, too bad so sad. You are stuck with the jury verdict and potential costs of filing the lawsuit. So unless you are 100% certain that you will get a better award from a jury, think twice about filing that lawsuit.

1. How do you insure every single person? In the auto insurance business, every single person that wants insurance can buy insurance. There is not one single person out there that can’t find auto insurance. Even though a bad driver may have higher premiums than a good driver, the bad driver can still find someone out there that is willing to take their premiums every month and insure that individual. Health insurance should be the same way. Health insurance companies should not be allowed to deny someone because of prior medical problems. “But won’t the insurance companies charge too much to insure someone with lots of prior medical problems?” Maybe, but that leads me to my next point.

2. How do you lower the cost of health care? Tort reform? No. Competition? YES! Every single person that has had any class in economics knows when you increase competition, costs go down. The auto insurance industry is a perfect example of competition. Big companies (Allstate, Farmers, State Farm, Travelers, etc.) all compete against each other on a NATIONAL level, not just the STATE level. That means Allstate, headquartered in Illinois, can sell auto insurance to anyone in any state. Health insurance companies are not allowed to sell health insurance in the same way. They cannot cross state lines to sell health insurance. This hinders competition and increases the price of premiums due to the lack of competition. If state lines were no longer an issue and I could buy from any health insurance company from across the nation, like auto insurance, health insurance companies would compete for my premium dollars and prices would go down.

3. Pay out of pocket for normal maintenance/preventative care. When your car needs an oil change, do you call your insurance company to make a claim so they can pay for your oil change? No. What about if you need new brakes, tires, tune up or battery? Of course not. Yet we are willing to pay out of pocket for these things because we know if we don’t, we will have bigger problems down the road. So why do we expect our health insurance to pay for every single dollar we incur in health care costs? We shouldn’t. If every person were required to pay out of pocket for the simple visits to the doctor, costs would go down in two ways. First, people would be more selective when deciding to go to the doctor or not. They would stop visiting the doctor for every single sniffle that came up and would only go to the doctor when they feel they have a serious issue that only a doctor can help them with. Second, you would be more likely to get “checked out” for the bigger things (yearly physicals, prostate exams, mammograms, etc) more often to try and catch them early on to lower your own financial exposure should something catastrophic show up in your life. Everyone knows a $30 oil change every 3000 miles can prolong the life of your car engine. Your yearly exams can prolong your life and problems caught early on can significantly decrease the cost of treating those problems should something arise.

4. Everyone should be required to purchase a minimum health insurance policy or be fined. Sure you can drive your car without auto insurance, but if you get pulled over by the police, you get a fine. It’s against the law to drive without auto insurance and it should be against the law to not carry health insurance. If you choose to not carry health insurance, you should be fined in a way similar to driving without auto insurance. I’m talking about the people out there that choose not purchase health insurance even though they can afford it. They think they are too healthy or they can’t get hurt, but when they do get sick or hurt and they end up in the hospital, they don’t pay for it, the taxpayers end up paying for it. Again, I am talking about people that can afford it, but choose not to. Obviously there are people that cannot afford to pay for a minimum policy and we already have something in place for them, its called medicaid and medicare.

5. Make health insurance policies easier to understand. When I buy auto insurance, I know exactly what I am purchasing and how much coverage I am getting. I still might be a little confused on some things like what is PIP or Medpay and what is the difference between Underinsured motorist coverage (UIM) versus Uninsured motorist coverage (UM), but the basics to auto insurance are simple to understand. Health insurance should be the same way. The minimum policy that everyone should be required to purchase should be understood by all and upgrading to more coverage should easily be outlined with the associated cost. I’m no rocket scientist so please don’t write my health insurance policy as if I am.

I know not everyone will agree with me, but I think if you look long and hard at how affordable auto insurance is and how well it works despite its flaws, you will find the ground work for the best healthcare reform this nation, or the world for that matter, has ever seen.

First, call your insurance company right away. They might have important information for you especially if you are in a rental car.

Second, if everyone appears to be OK, finish your vacation. Don’t let a little car accident ruin what should be a nice and enjoyable time. If no one is seriously hurt, wait until you get home to work on the troubles of being in a car crash.

Third, know the statute of limitations of the state you are visiting. Every state sets their own statutes and the state you were visiting may have different statutes than your home state. Don’t assume all statutes are the same because they aren’t.

And finally, if you need to hire an attorney, please hire one in the state where the car accident happened. Hiring an attorney in the state where the car accident happened will ensure you are hiring an attorney that is familiar with that states specific laws. That includes the statute of limitations. If you need a referral for the state where the car accident occurred, please let us help you find a trusted attorney by using our network of licensed attorneys.

From wikipedia – A statute of limitations is a statute in a common law legal system that sets forth the maximum period of time, after certain events, that legal proceedings based on those events may be initiated.

In essence, the minute you are involved in a car accident, the clock starts ticking on the time that you can make a legal claim for your injuries sustained in the auto accident. Every state sets forth its own statute of limitations and it’s important to know what those time limits are especially if the car accident happened in a state you do not live in.

This site has compiled all the statute of limitations for each state and outlines the amount of time that you have to file a complaint. It also links to the individual state website that outlines the statute. Keep in mind these statutes can change and therefore you should check them every time you are involved in a car accident.

If you feel like you are getting close to the statute of limitations in the state where the car accident happened, please contact an attorney and see what they can do to help you file a complaint to keep your claim open beyond your allotted time period.

We are now entering week 4 of my wife’s injury claim. At this point, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take our Free Crash Evaluator™ and find out what kind of an injury claim we are looking at. Keep in mind that her injury can still change and I will probably have to take the Crash Evaluator again after she has completed treatment if her injury gets worse of any of the variables to her personal injury case change.

As you can see, based on her current status, the Crash Evaluator™ suggests she may have a claim that she can settle on her own. However, I need to point out one word of caution. SHE IS STILL TREATING. You never want to settle your claim while you are actively treating with a medical professional. If you settle your claim and you have to go back to the doctor for injuries related to the auto accident, you will be the one paying out of pocket for any additional care.

The next step for my wife and her claim is to finish her treatment. At that point, we will begin to gather all of her medical bills and records to get ready to submit our demand package to the insurance adjuster. All of the tactics that I am using for my wife’s claim are contained in our Personal Injury Settlement Booklet™. No matter what stage you are at in your injury claim, our Personal Injury Settlement Booklet™ can help you get the most out our your injury claim.

Luckily for you, I will be documenting the whole ordeal on CarCrashAssist.com to show you that the information contained on this site and in our Settlement Booklet™ can help you navigate the waters of insurance claims and help you get the most value out of your personal injury settlement.

I recently posted an article on the importance of taking pictures of the accident scene, especially the property damage and injuries. Right now my wife doesn’t have any bruising, so we didn’t need to photograph any injuries, but I did get some pictures of the property damage. Here is the reason you need to take pictures whenever you are involved in a car accident:

Notice that it looks like very little damage has happened to the rear of our car. We drive a 2008 Toyota Camry. Newer cars are designed to take most of the damage underneath the bumpers and it makes it appear that this was a low impact accident. However, when you see the car that hit her, it tells a completely different story.

Notice the amount of damage to his bumper. Additionally you will see that his hood sustained damage. This accident all the sudden looks more severe than if you only saw pictures of our car. Granted, this is not a high speed accident, it probably happened under 15 mph, but medical documents will show that you can sustain a severe whiplash at just 5 mph and this is clearly above that speed.

You wouldn’t get the whole story without seeing the other vehicle. If I hadn’t took pictures myself, I can guarantee that the insurance company would have mysteriously lost their pictures if we end up having to go to court. Now I don’t have to worry about that because I took pictures myself.

By the time that I showed up to the accident (I work less than 10 mins away), my wife had an immediate onset of neck and back pains and headaches. Wanting to have her evaluated by a doctor, I took her to the nearest ER. Next time I will cover the ER visit and our first call with the insurance companies.